Ingredients
- 1 Cup sugar
- 1 Cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 4 oz. cream cheese, softened (reduced fat works well)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. PURE ALMOND EXTRACT
- 1/2 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
- 1 egg yolk
- 21/4 Cups all-purpose flour
- colored sugar, VANILLA SUGAR or CINNAMON SUGAR
Preparation
Step 1
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, ALMOND and VANILLA EXTRACTS and the egg yolk. Beat until smooth. Stir in the flour until well blended. Cover and refrigerate for 5 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 375°. Roll the dough into 1/2-inch balls, roll in the sugar of your choice and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Lightly flatten the cookies with your palm or a clean glass. Or, on a lightly-floured surface, roll out the dough 1/3 at a time to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with your favorite cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets 1 inch apart. Bake at 375° for 7-10 minutes or until light and golden brown. If you have used cookie cutters, let the cookies cool completely before decorating with your favorite frosting and sprinkles.
Prep. time: 15 minutes plus chilling time. 15 for rolling balls, more for using cookie cutters.
Baking time: 7-10 minutes per sheet
Yield: 4-1/2 dozen
Nutritional Information:
Servings 27; Serving Size 2 cookies (31g); Calories 140; Calories from fat 70; Total fat 8g; Cholesterol 30mg; Sodium 115mg; Carbohydrate 16g; Dietary Fiber 0g; Sugars 8g; Protein 1g.
You HAVE to chill the dough, otherwise it's entirely too sticky to do anything with. It's also good to do two batches so you can use up the entire 8 ounces of cream cheese
these cookies freeze really well, too! bake for the least amount of time possible, and then let the cookies sit on the hot baking sheet for another 3-5 minutes. The heat from the cookie sheet continues to bake the cookies without drying them out or burning them.
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